#pplg's

My Personal and Professional Learning Goals for the next 6 - 12 months.  

Professional

1. Enhanced confidence in business environments:  I need to become confident in meetings especially face to face.  I feel comfortable talking to people whom I am comfortable with so the trick for me is adjusting quickly outside of my own comfort zone.  

2. Continue learning and practicing digital methods of achieving tasks:  I have learned so far that there are more than one way to achieve work tasks during my time at RocketZone (using Dropbox, Mindmeister, Tumblr), so I must continue to use these mediums (when appropriate) as well as find other digital methods of doing things.

3. Learn strategies to overcome lack of confidence in my skills and abilities:  I believe so much in others' abilities and skills yet I do not apply the same thinking to my own talents.  It is difficult for me to display 'ready confidence' because I still feel that I have so much to learn from others.  However I know that there is much others can learn from me but I have to learn ways of overcoming my own fears. 

Personal

1. Participate in varied forms of physical activity:  This semester I discovered that I can get back into physical activity by playing squash.  I learned that once I continued with it I would enjoy it and want more.  Now I would like to do other forms of physical activity such as hiking, jogging etc - to push my physical boundaries.  I believe that once I am finished from Unitec I will have the free time to pursue this personal goal - which I cannot wait for!

2. Travel around New Zealand:  This is a goal which stemmed from discussions with Danni and Michelle about the places they have been to all over New Zealand (and the world for that matter).  It showed me that there are so many other places in New Zealand that I have yet to discover with my family and my time freed up from Uni will now allow us to plan for getaways such as this.  I eventually want my family and I to travel the world but that is going to take a bit more time (and money).

My Personal and Professional Learning goals were aimed at gaining an overall work-life balance.  I did this by striving towards the personal goals of TIME MANAGEMENT and PLAYING A SPORT; and my professional goals were TIME MANAGEMENT, learning about BRANDING and how to design a WEBSITE.  I used this semester as an experiment to see how much discipline I could apply to my own life amidst the hustle and bustle of student life.  Overall, I believe that I achieved all the personal and professional goals I set out for myself this semester.  

Time management:  This was both a personal and professional goal I had set for myself because I didn't keep a schedule for any of my tasks and was rather running haphazardly throughout my days.  I wanted to teach myself to be more accountable for the hours that I was putting in my personal and professional life.  I disciplined myself into scheduling my time and organising my days into 'bricks of time' so that it's usage was optimised for my family, my work and my studies.  Upon reflection of this personal and professional goal I can happily say that I have achieved this and now keep a schedule of all the things I must achieve throughout the week.  Ticking off items on this list is satisfactory and gives me a real sense of accomplishment.

Playing a sport:  This semester I returned to playing squash, a sport I used to play regularly with my husband.  I set the goal of playing at least three times a week in order to achieve empowerment over my own physical fitness.  There were weeks when I felt too tired and made excuses not to go but thankfully my husband (whom I enlisted at the start of the semester to encourage me to achieve my PPLGs) pushed me and reminded me of my end goal.  I am happy to say that since I have set this goal I have played at least three games of squash every week and continue to do so.  I have only won a handful of games but I am getting better each and every time.

Branding and Website:  I started off this semester with very little knowledge about branding and website development; and I wanted to learn as much as I could.  Danni had suggested several reading materials and research items so that I would learn as much as I could about branding and website development.  The result is that I can freely discuss the importance and value of a good brand based upon the research and readings I have done.  The practical work I have completed regarding the website and branding has been a immense learning experience and I feel that I have fully achieved this learning goal too.  

I did my proposal this morning in front of Danni and Michelle.  I was so nervous, thankfully they understood and I was able to quickly get over it.  I had prepared a set of slides and also a mini-feasibility study ('mini' because it did not include financial projections).  The research conducted during the past couple of weeks was all summed up in that document and in my slides.  Danni had set for me several tasks to be concluded today:

(1)  aim to find approximately 50 small businesses which would need our services.  They must fit our criteria:  "boutique style" niche business that specialises in children's products/services, passionate about growing their business, do not have the expertise to run their own marketing programmes.

(2)  present my findings today in a proposal to her and Michelle whereby I would let them know whether theKIDzone is a feasible venture for them.

From my findings I discovered 31 small businesses which fit theKIDzone's criteria in the Auckland region.  It is my belief that there are indeed way more in Auckland than what I found but this gives good ground work for Danni and Michelle to look at.  I also advised them that theKIDzone is a good venture and the markets available are wide and varied with many opportunities for them to expand and find companies that would be happy to have their help.  

After my presentation, Danni and Michelle seemed satisfied with the presentation and provided feedback.  One of the main points they brought up is that put simply, theKIDzone is out to help their clients grow their business - This was a point which didn't come through in my presentation but I felt I had covered in my proposal which they were not able to read through at that time.  Quite understandably, it's their 'baby' and they wanted to make sure that I was conveying the right message throughout my whole project on theKIDzone.  Another point that Danni raised was that she felt my presentation was quite broad and she had expected more scope from me at this point.  She told me later on that she felt the information I had given her was nothing new and didn't challenge her thinking.  She felt that I could have bettered it by discussing overseas companies which do fit our criteria and who do 'one-off' services/products (eg. baby massage etc) - something that although may not be available in New Zealand yet, it could be and thus the image and theme of theKIDzone needs to be already prepared to market for this.  

That was my light bulb moment and I finally understood, I was approaching this whole thing from the wrong angle!  I've been doing this first phase of theKIDzone project as if it was a Uni assignment rather than a work-that-I-love-to-do kind of assignment because upon reflection I should have seen it the way Danni did and I should have anticipated all the angles for theKIDzone.  I'm just so used to the one dimensional (sometimes two dimensional) way assignments are answered at Uni that I have forgotten this is the real world and no longer 'make believe'.  

Humbled by this and blown away by my own inefficiency I started on phase two of my theKIDzone project.  This time I am conducting research on theKIDzone brand and gathering information as well as inspiration before I write up my first ever brand brief.  The idea is to let my inhibitions go and open my mind to all possible branding ideas for theKIDzone.  Luckily, when I have to present my findings I am encouraged to supply several key ideas and let Danni and Michelle select the one they want to use as theKIDzone's new logo and brand.  I want to say that I am super excited at this stage but to be honest I'm nervous because I don't want to let Danni or Michelle down.  Probably better for me to be cautious and tread this one finely rather than blaze through it like I do all my Uni assignments (!!)  

To end this entry at a high, from what I've seen today online during my quest for branding and logo inspiration, this is definitely going to be the most fun part of this project.  For this, I love branding and all the creative buzz it will surely bring!

Personal goals: 

-          Time management:  to juggle work, studies and family life so that I am achieving a healthy work life balance.

-          Play a sport:  to get back into physical fitness by playing a sport again.  I haven’t participated in any physical activities this year simply because I’ve let things get on top of me in terms of school, work, home – I feel that this is an important goal for me on my way to physical health again.

Professional goals:  

-          Time management: setting proper timeframes so I can achieve tasks within set times.  Turn up to work on time and finish work on time.  Ensure that tasks done within certain timeframes are relevant and not wasteful of company resources.

-          Branding:  to learn about branding and how this relates to theKIDzone project.   Using the communication channels within RocketZone to create a brand appropriately (eg. At which point research becomes a mockup and from which point this goes to a graphic designer).  How to create a design brief.